Method and System for Data Flow Management of User Equipment in a Tunneling Packet Data Network

1 . A data replication system of a communication network comprising:

a replication control system located in one or more of a visited network and a home network; and

a replication gateway node configured to create a first replication tunnel between a first gateway node and the replication gateway node and a second replication tunnel between the replication gateway node and a second gateway node,

wherein the replication gateway node replicates a data stream between the first gateway node and the second gateway.

2 . The data replication system of claim 1 further comprising a stream normalizer node connected to the replication gateway node, wherein the replication gateway node forwards the replicated data stream to the stream normalizer node.

3 . The data replication system of claim 1 , wherein the first gateway is a serving data gateway providing user access to the network and the second gateway is a packet data network gateway providing connectivity to an application service network.

4 . The data replication system of claim 3 , wherein the replication control system changes a name and an address of the packet data network gateway node contained in the data streams to a name and an address of the replication gateway node.

5 . The data replication system of claim 1 further comprising a serving control system, wherein the serving control system creates the first replication tunnel in response to a request from user equipment (UE) and the replication gateway node sets up the second replication tunnel.

6 . The data replication system of claim 5 , wherein the serving control system creates the second replication tunnel in response to a request from an application on the communication network and the replication gateway node sets up the first replication tunnel.

7 . The data replication system of claim 1 , wherein the replication gateway node bonds the first replication tunnel and the second replication tunnel.

8 . The data replication system of claim 1 , wherein the replication gateway node deletes both the first replication tunnel and the second replication tunnel in response to a request to delete either the first replication tunnel or the second replication tunnel.

9 . The data replication system of claim 2 , wherein the stream normalizer node performs isolation, diversion, separation and reassembly of the data streams, and forwards the replicated data streams to a downstream service.

10 . The data replication system of claim 9 , wherein the downstream service is selected from a group comprising a compliance service, fraud detection analysis, security analysis and profile, and service usage analytics.

11 . The data replication system of claim 1 , wherein the data replication system is implemented in a service provider selected from a group a long term evolution (LTE) network, a 3G general packet radio service (GPRS) network, a mobile IP (MIP) network, and a proxy mobile IP network (PMIP) network.

12 . The data replication system of claim 1 , wherein the replication control system comprises an interface module for interfacing with an operations support system for provisioning a target access point name (APN).

13 . The data replication system of claim 1 , wherein the replication control system directly configures an APN.

14 . The data replication system of claim 1 , wherein information gathered from a control plane is used to manage a user plane.

15 . A method for replicating data streams in a communication network comprising:

creating, using a replication control system located in one or more of a visited network and a home network, a first replication tunnel between a serving data gateway node and a replication gateway node;

creating a second replication tunnel between the replication gateway node and a packet data network gateway node;

replicating data streams between the serving data gateway node and the packet data network gateway; and

forwarding the replicated data streams to a stream normalizer node.

16 . The method of claim 15 further comprising changing a name and an address of the packet data network gateway node contained in the data streams to a name and an address of the replication gateway node.

17 . The method of claim 15 further comprising creating the first replication tunnel in response to a request from user equipment (UE) and causing the replication gateway node to setup the second replication tunnel.

18 . The method of claim 17 further comprising creating the second replication tunnel in response to a request from an application on the communication network and causing the replication gateway node to setup the first replication tunnel.

19 . The method of claim 15 further comprising bonding the first replication tunnel and the second replication tunnel.

20 . The method of claim 15 further comprising deleting both the first replication tunnel and the second replication tunnel in response to a request to delete either the first replication tunnel or the second replication tunnel.

21 . The method of claim 15 further comprising performing isolation, diversion, separation and reassembly of the data streams, and forwarding the replicated data streams to a downstream service.

22 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the downstream service is selected from a group comprising a compliance service, fraud detection analysis, security analysis and profile, and service usage analytics.

23 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the communication network is selected from a group comprising a LTE network a 3G GPRS network, an MIP network, and a PMIP network.

24 . The method of claim 15 further comprising providing an interface module for interfacing with an operations support system for provisioning a target access point name (APN).

25 . The method of claim 15 further comprising directly configuring an APN by a replication control system.

26 . A method for replicating data streams in a communication network comprising:

replacing an IP address of a packet data network gateway node with an IP address of a passive replication gateway;

receiving a target traffic from a serving data gateway at the passive replication gateway node; and

replicating a data stream for the target traffic at the passive replication gateway node; and

redirecting the target traffic to the packet data network gateway,

wherein the packet data network gateway targets only the target traffic.

27 . A method for replicating data streams in a communication network comprising:

replacing an IP address of a packet data network gateway node with an IP address of a passive replication gateway for target traffic only;

receiving a target traffic from a serving data gateway at the passive replication gateway node;

replicating a data stream for the target traffic at the passive replication gateway node; and

redirecting the target traffic to the packet data network gateway.